I read the article Looking To The Future posted on The Educator with a great deal of interest. I would recommend it highly.

Posted by Cameron at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday evening I attended a meeting of Little Falls 176. I enjoyed myself a great deal both during the meeting, and before & after. I also got to catch up on some of the local happenings, always fun.

Saturday the mailman delivered books. Wonderful books!

My new and fancy edition of Morals and Dogma is just that, very high end. Leather bound, gilt pages, cloth bookmarks. The book is quite a bit larger than the Morals and Dogma we are all used to, the extra space needed of course for the extensive footnotes and illustrations it contains. I look forward to cracking it open soon.

I also received Esoterika by Pike. I'm about half way through, and it is proving to be a very enjoyable, yet still challenging read.

The final book is Vested In Glory by Jim Tresner. I've read nothing in it yet but have glanced through its pages and the illustrations are beyond compare.

Tonight Centralia 63 meets, I'm off for lodge right after dinner.

Posted by Cameron at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Our mental and moral development has not kept pace with our ability to change the world around us. To be sure, humanity has more collective knowledge than heretofore, but knowledge and wisdom are two different things. We might well ask ourselves if it is wisdom that we have learned enough about how the universe works so that we now have the ability to destroy all life on our planet? Morals and Dogma is a call to our senses. It recites the dilemmas of the past, and challenges us to improve ourselves, and in so doing the world at large."

-Arturo De Hoyos

"Masonry is useful to all men: to the learned, because it affords them the opportunity of exercising their talents upon subjects eminently worthy of their attention; to the illiterate, because it offers them important instruction; to the young, because it presents them with salutary precepts and good examples, and accustoms them to reflect on the proper mode of living; to the man of the world, whom it furnishes with noble and useful recreation; to the traveller, whom it enables to find friends and brothers in countries where else he would be isolated and solitary; to the worthy man in misfortune, to whom it gives assistance; to the afflicted, on whom it lavishes consolation; to the charitable man, whom it enables to do more good, by uniting with those who are charitable like himself; and to all who have souls capable of appreciating its importance, and of enjoying the charms of a friendship founded on the same principles of religion, morality, and philanthropy."

-Albert Pike

Posted by Cameron at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the United States today we don't see much in the way of true, grinding, poverty. Forced giving through taxation has created a social safety net so encompassing that in the overwhelming majority of cases everyone willing to receive food, shelter, and clothing, the basic requirements of life, do receive them. American's as a whole give a great deal, and as Masons we give more both through our large organized charitable functions, and through our own quiet efforts to help our fellowman.

I've got family who emigrated from the United States to Mexico, so I spend a good deal of time in that country. Mexico has made tremendous economic strides since the end of one party rule in the year 2000 and is becoming a middle class dominated nation. Despite this ongoing improvement there remains truly horrible poverty effecting millions of people in that country. Get out of the resort and it is certainly visible.

Freemasonry has a rather more wild history in Mexico than it does here, and to this day Masonry seems less socially accepted in that country. I've met Masons from Mexico in Mexico but I've not yet met one who was wearing a Masonic ring. They see mine and introduce themselves. Generally the language barrier isn't so great that we can't talk for a while, one man even provided my family members with his contact information, and the contact information for his male relatives with instructions to call if there was ever an emergency they needed non-official help with.

The thing is, when we walk through Mexico wearing our rings, that Square and Compasses is seen, at least occasionally, by people who are on the very edge of life. People who are desperate for food, shelter, or clothing. Those necessities cost little there compared to the United States, what we perceive as a small bit of help can make a big difference in a family's life.

I think that when we, as Masons travel to truly poor parts of the world we must ensure that the truly desperate people we encounter see the hand wearing the ring give aid, not pass by indifferently.

We should wear our rings with tremendous pride. Pride in our Order demands that our hand is never turned away from the mother begging for milk to feed her child.

The Masonic Ring by Howie Damron

Posted by Cameron at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tomorrow night I plan to visit a lodge I've not been to before, Little Falls 176 in the tiny town of Vader Washington.

I know the WM there, he's a wonderful guy and I know that it will be a great evening.

That said, I have to admit that I always worry about it when I go somewhere new. Nervous I guess, and I imagine everyone has the same nervousness when meeting people one doesn't know.

It is though an irrational nervousness. Masons are brothers, the world over. I've walked into a large number of lodges through the years and I've always received a superb welcome and met new friends.

Visiting is I think one of the great parts of Freemasonry, and I look forward to meeting new friends tomorrow evening.

Posted by Cameron at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)